Your Brand Needs A Mobile App. Here’s Why.

The most crucial mobile strategy question asked by every single brand today is – "do we really need a mobile app?"

. About 5-6 years ago, the answer would have been dependent on many factors. However, today the most common answer that the marketers and the best mobile developers have for both the big and small businesses is – if you don't want to fall behind the competition, get one. According to the 2013 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands, 89 of them designed and launched an app, some of whom had more than one app. This was the case with websites or any kind of web presence about 10-11 years ago. Even an e-commerce platform with shopping carts was 'good to have' options. When it comes to web presence in the year 2017, even the question of whether it's important for your business is somewhat amusing.

Today it is nearly impossible for a brand to survive without a website. So at a time when the internet was not considered to be significant, brands that adopted digital behavior benefitted the most when their users started going online. In the last 3 years, mobile apps have outgrown the 'nice to have' phase and today play a very crucial role in optimizing user experience. They are brand driven, signify interactive experiences and have been optimized for various platform rigorously used by the users currently such as smartphones, tablets or even the novel wearable devices.

So, most businesses have come to a realization that it needs a mobile app. According to an article, the average annual investment in apps in 2015 was $5,5 million and every study was showing that consumers were spending more time on their apps than ever before. Also, in a very interesting article on the Adobe blog it showed that US consumers might spend 86% of their mobile time on apps, but once we remove gaming, Facebook, Twitter,Youtube, news and utility apps, a brand app is competing only for a share of 11% at the very best. Though apps is a different and a more exciting medium to communicate with the consumers, it does not necessarily mean that every brand needs to develop one.

If your customer doesn't require an app, your business doesn't need it either. Unless the app you develop is going to add that extra value, drive a utility that is really unique and is extremely useful – it doesn't make sense to invest any time, resources or energy on mobile app development. Here are the 3 key reasons to keep in mind when considering mobile app development for your brand: Providing a superior user experience unmatched by other strategy models For every business, 'online' or 'offline', creating a great customer experience is essential to building a solid consumer base. In this competitive world, this is what brands really strive for. So if a mobile app strategy model can help you achieve this – then this alone can be a significant reason to develop a mobile app for your brand. According to an article, 'Uber managed to capture almost 50% of the taxi and transportation industry and their app is the backbone of their success.' Thus, apps can be very powerful and help in tapping the innovation zone.

If your brand app can provide a unique experience completely different from what your website does, then it can win over your customers and improve brand loyalty by a large degree. Gaining key insights into mobile behavior The mobile app revolution has ensured that most of the consumers today use mobile apps. This also means, that in order to capture and understand this user base you need to develop an app. Consumers interact very differently with brands via an app, it is at a more personal level. So in order to gain a deeper insight into mobile app behavior, your personal app can showcase how your user engages with you. Having an app can give you an opportunity to use app analytics, which can provide an understanding of your target audience's actions.

This will enable you to create a more powerful and personalized mobile experience. Adding more relevance to the interaction and engagement process The demands and expectations of the user are increasing every day. By developing an app you can create a more personalized user experience, which can make it more relevant and exciting for your target audience.

This is not completely possible even when you have a responsive website. An app can give you a deeper insight into the demographics and the behavior. This can enable you to build custom experiences catering to the different segments formed through the insights. If you have come to a conclusion that incorporating the development of an app as a part of your business strategy can be really beneficial for your brand, then go for it. However, in order to make it a success, you need to provide a useful and a unique service, which differentiates it from not only the other apps in the market but also from your website.

BluEnt's app developers can help you create the most unique and exciting app for your customers. Contact us today if you want to outsource mobile app development and tap the mobile app revolution.